


The mountains are calling and I must go

by joouheika



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 06:57:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5733895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joouheika/pseuds/joouheika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has so been written in the constellations. [Capricorn/Aries AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	The mountains are calling and I must go

There was once a field abound in plenty.

Lush grass, sweet flowers, a row of trees for shade, a lake as vast as the sea they naught drink.

In this field, a sheep named Eren lived.

Every day was sunny and warm.

The sheep Eren slept peacefully on the soft grass and ate it as he pleased. He napped upon the beautiful flowers and snacked on them when he wanted. When the sun grew too warm for he had thick soft white wool to cover his body, he slept beneath the shade of the trees.

Under an unchanging blue sky he lived peacefully.

It dawned on him one day he was rather bored of this life.

And so the stars in the sky faded with the dark of the night, to a day not so bright.

In came a storm.

Eren had never experienced a storm before.

Never, had it not been for a few bad dreams that could not have been reality.

With its dark clouds (the only ones he’d seen before as white and soft as he) fast approaching brought thunder and lightning, the rain and the cold. It blew over those trees that’d given him shade, and tore across the grass he always ate, and flooded over the flowers he loved to eat.

With his home destroyed, Eren fled his homeland.

He ran and he ran and he ran.

Past the woods he heard wolves dwelt, past the sea he heard only fish could live within, past the towns and their barns where sheep like him would be kept as capture later to be eaten.

He ran and he ran and he ran.

Until he could run no more.

For a mountain stood in his way.

On this mountain lives a goat.

\--

That goat’s name is Levi.

A scary, mean old goat Eren had been warned about before starting his climb. With the largest of horns, long and arching back, the darkest of black. The strongest of legs. The sharpest of hooves. King of the mountain. He will not let anyone pass without paying a toll.

Eren is incredulous and angry at first.

“Why should I pay you?” Eren asks.

Levi scowls and replies, “A kid like you ought to have better manners.”

And a swift kick sends Eren down the mountain.

Eren climbs back up the mountain.

A troubled expression on his face.

“What should I pay you with… sir?” Eren asks, nursing a bruised cheek, his mouth missing a tooth.

Levi thinks it over.

“I'll have one of your gold horns. It'll fetch a nice price among the humans.”

Eren holds his hooves at his curling horns, distraught. Always complimented upon them for matching his just as gold eyes.

“That seems like it would hurt a great deal sir.”

Levi nods.

“If you don't like that then some grass will do. Or some flowers to eat. If you have tea it’s a sure deal.”

Eren shakes his head.

“I have nothing to eat for myself even. A colossal storm destroyed my field, which is why I must escape it and pass this mountain.”

Seeing Eren’s downhearted expression on losing his home, Levi tries to be more lenient.

He circles around Eren and touches at his soft wool.

“Then how about some of your wool? I have my own but yours looks all the warmer, and it gets cold in the mountains.”

Eren shakes his head again.

“If I give you my wool then I will be cold. What will I do then if I leave the mountain and the storm catches up with me? I will freeze.”

Levi is thoughtful again.

“That is true. But you cannot pass if you cannot pay.”

Eren is on the verge of tears, he settles his head down into his thick wool and tries not to let his frustration show.

He could try to force his way pass, but he’d just get kicked down the mountain again.

He has no food to eat himself and he did not like the cold and cannot be without his wool.

His horns are just out of the question.

“Would it be too much trouble to ask that you let me pass and I pay you another time?”

Levi’s scowl darkens, worse than the storm.

Eren shivers.

“There’s no time except right this moment.”

Vexed, Eren’s wool puffs up as his sorrow turns to anger, “Understood! Then, I will not pass the mountain! I will return to my field! I will defeat the storm! And then I will never have to pass your mountain or see you ever again, old goat!”

As soon as his outburst is out Eren feels his face grow hot, he readies himself to be kicked off the mountain for yelling but no kick comes. Eren jumps on seeing Levi staring at him even more intensely than before.

“Oh… not bad, you shitty kid. But how will you defeat the storm with such tiny horns? It can’t be helped then. You will have to stay here.”

Eren is confused.

Levi explains further, “Use that brain of yours if you want to survive. Or is your skull stuffed full of such fluffy wool too? Fine, I will not let you pass over my mountain but I will let you stay on it. With this mountain you can be protected from the storm and return home.”

Eren is overjoyed.

“Thank you very much sir!”

“Levi. My name is Levi.”

“Thank you very much Mr Levi!”

“What about you?”

Eren is confused. Not the first of many more times.

“What is _your_ name kid?”

“Eren! It’s Eren Yeager sir!”

And so begins the sheep Eren Yeager’s time on the mountain with the goat Levi.

\--

Levi has a hard time sleeping.

Eren soon learns, not only from the dark circles around Levi’s eyes. Levi can never seem to get comfortable, and the mountain is indeed cold. His wool is not as thick or soft as Eren’s and so despite that the mountain is his home, he is not always that warm within it. He is not like the other goats, who have no difficulty maintaining a comfortable temperature. Perhaps his genes just differ from theirs? Once the fire blows out in the middle of the night, and wood is not often gathered so high up in these rocks- Eren understands why Levi had asked for his wool.

Eren tries to help.

He gathers pine needles that have fallen from the trees due to the wind of the ever encroaching storm to make a hot tea that should help with sleep and warm the body.

He even jumps back and forth so Levi may count him over and over, as humans have said counting sheep can make one sleep, but the ruckus of noise his hooves makes on landing irritates Levi, giving him a headache.

Eren is sad he cannot help Levi sleep, even though Levi has allowed him to stay on the mountain.

Eren tries to think hard to come up with a way to help Levi sleep but he cannot think of anything… until on an especially cold night, it dawns on him that the solution is simple.

Eren cannot stand seeing Levi shivering and so goes over to him. He nestles close beside him, earning a scowl. Levi berates Eren for shivering with such warm wool but Eren is not shivering from cold but rather fear Levi will kick him off the mountain for his intrusion.

This kick also does not come, and Eren sees it’s because Levi has fallen fast asleep, his heavy weight tucked against Eren’s wool.

Then after Eren is not allowed to not sleep beside Levi.

\--

With the storm drawing closer, and the nights getting colder, Levi draws nearer to Eren for warmth.

Sometimes Eren has the breath knocked out of him from how hard Levi is pressed against him but he doesn’t complain. It’s nice to sleep beside someone again, he used to sleep next to parents when they were still alive.

Had it really been just now, that he’s encountered this storm? There’s something he doesn’t want to remember….

Eren feels down after trying to bring back memories he’s long buried.

He sitting as high as he can go on some cliffs when Levi returns from the tip top of the mountain.

He lays at Eren’s feet what he’d been carrying.

It’s some fruit, some apples.

Eren looks at Levi in confusion, brought out of his cloudy contemplation.

“You cannot climb as high as I can with such a round soft body, so I have climbed to the top for you to bring you this. You like sweets don’t you? All kids do.”

Eren had tried to climb up to the top before but his legs aren’t as strong, and his hooves are not the right shape, and so he’d fallen many times. Helped back up by Levi who knew the mountain better and his body just as well.

Eren could not reach the top but he’d well explored where he could, the places where trees hung over, the little caverns where tiny lakes of hot water steamed up from the cracks, various places where moss or flowers not as sweet as the ones he used to eat, grew-

Eren thanks Levi and eats the apples, he does like sweets.

\--

Eren said he would defeat the storm, but in the end they are protected by the mountain, and it passes over, the thunder, the wind and the rain. In a way endurance is how you beat a storm. Eren is not entirely satisfied, but is not one to flaunt his ingratitude. Not after all Levi has taught him.

Eren also soon learns.

Levi hates the rain.

The damp and the cold after smell gives him a headache, rivaling to the one Eren’s hooves had made. Levi’s headache seems to only get worse even as the storm moves past these mountains (without paying a toll! Eren’s barb earns only a slight kick to his leg, but on the mountain he remains) and the pine needle tea only helps so much, and even the warmth of Eren’s wool against Levi’s wool is not enough to ease this ailment.

It is not from a bad dream so his once cultivated comfortable sleep is no longer a cure. And it is not the rain he so hates, Eren thinks though Levi insists.

Eren shows Levi what he thinks should be done. Levi trusting in Eren's judgement given it'd been by Eren's choice to lend him his woolly body through the night.

He brings Levi to that hot pool of water he’d found in one of the caves.

With the flowers he makes a paste to help wash Levi’s wool and polish his horns.

Clean and refreshed, a weight lifted from him, Levi compliments Eren's hard work.

After drying in the sun, the damp from his wool dried away like the rainfall from the mountain has.

Levi’s headache is gone.

Eren sits next to him in the sun, his wool still softer, still whiter than Levi’s. Levi notes, staring, admiring. What pretty wool Eren has. How cute Eren is. Eren speaks and Levi's gaze shoots up to Eren's smiling face.

“I’ve done all that I could. If you feel better then I have paid my debt to you surely sir. I will leave this mountain and return to my field.”

Since the storm has passed.

“It’s no can do, Eren.”

Eren is confused.

“You paid me a toll even though you are not passing over the mountain. That is not allowed. If you pay me then you must go to the other side.”

Where the storm is.

Levi does not think Eren will go since this is the case.

Levi does not want Eren to go.

Eren is vexed.

“Understood, I will cross over the mountain Mr Levi.”

Levi scowls, his plan backfiring upon Eren's tenaciousness.

“You can’t Eren. You‘re not able to climb to the top. It’s not possible for you.”

Eren is pouting at him, sinking into that soft wool Levi so loves.

“Then! You will just have to carry me sir!”

Levi looks at Eren and replies.

“Alright.”

He hefts Eren up with his horns and sets him on his back.

Levi climbs to the top of the mountain, carrying Eren upon his strong back. There, they eat some apples while looking at the starry sky. Levi is snuggled up tightly against Eren and Eren snuggles back up against him, to Levi's immense satisfaction.

Their gazes reach over onto the land on the other side of the mountain.

Levi says to Eren.

“If you’re gunna defeat that storm, you better just do it if you’re gunna. Eren.”

Eren replies to Levi.

Eren is not confused.

“This time for sure the storm will be defeated! Because _we’re_ going to defeat it Mr Levi!”

Together the goat Levi and the sheep Eren descend the mountain.


End file.
